But it’s not benign, either, is it?

“[T]he act underlying the conviction — ‘persuasion’ — is by itself innocuous. Indeed, ‘persuading’ a person ‘to withhold’ testimony from a government proceeding, or government official is not inherently malign. Consider, for instance, a mother who suggests to her son that he invoke his right against self-incrimination … or a wife who persuades her husband not to disclose marital confidences.”

So the highest court in the land has struck down, based on a technicality involving jury instructions, the verdict which pretty much destroyed the consulting firm which had handled much of Enron’s accounting data and, coincidentally, started an internal shred-a-thon just as Enron was being accused of evildoing. And once again, I ask: how soon will we be seeing this on Law & Order?